Members of gay rights group Soulforce began a 65-mile “1000 Watt” relay march yesterday to send a message to Focus on the Family founder James Dobson about diverse families. It will culminate on July 22 with a vigil and concert outside Focus on the Family's Colorado Springs headquarters. Actor Chad Allen and Judy Shepard will join Soulforce to draw attention to religion-based discrimination against families with gay parents.
Soulforce is accusing Dobson's group of manipulating research data on families with same-sex parents. Said Executive Director Jeff Lutes: “That misinformation has real tragic results. It makes living for families like ours much more difficult. We are rejected sometimes by loved ones, we are shunned by churches and we are discriminated against in every state in this country.”
Soulforce recently staged a 20-stop Equality Ride to religious and military universities that discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation which included stops at West Point and Jerry Falwell's Liberty University and resulted in the Soulforce bus being vandalized and numerous arrests.
In May 2005, Soulforce protested outside of Focus on the Family, and member Jacob Reitan and his parents were arrested when they attempted to hand-deliver a letter to Dobson.
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